Dan Rather gave a commentary on Trump’s incompetence, which Allen Clifton wrote about. There is a link to Dan Rather’s commentary on Allen’s post. I wanted to give my own two-cents on the article.
Yes, we live in dangerous times. The analogous would be somewhere in 1920’s Germany with the rise of the Nazi Party and their willing executioners. The difference is, of course, that the United States is not under oppressive sanctions nor is their massive economic plight.
We do have a backlash much as people during the enlightenment period in Europe with people who need to be told what to do and how to think that could not make it for whatever reason into the modern era. Like with the Nazi regime, they blame everyone who is not like them for their plight, as that is the easy road rather than blame themselves. Many are uneducated, even with a degree, and do not understand.
There are many parallels to periods of the past and present. One does not have to go too far. Trump keeps bringing Putin, Duarte, and other dictators. Trump wants to tell people what to thing and wants to be told what to think.
The way to fight back is through the truth and education. The danger is to be complacent or to say that one side is better than the other. As the November 2016 election showed, we had Bernie. The difference is that Republicans did corrupt their entire party possibly beyond repair.
A person, who read my commentary, responded as follows:
To the sentence in your comment beginning: ‘The difference is ….. I would add the very important word ‘YET’. It is already clear to me that the Republicans now in charge aim to make a NAZI-like DICTATORSHIP of the government of the United States of America!!
People know the German’s and the Nazis from a vantage point of modern day, but what happened took years to come out. Also, in those days they were the first and information traveled slowly. Since that time, evil has had a chance to learn and adapt. The same forces, which swept up Germany, did not disappear. They relocated and exist everywhere.
We had White Supremacists dating all the way back, or has everyone forgotten the Civil War and slavery. I remember the mutterings from years ago from down south: “A good ***** is a dead one” and the like. The North won the war, Lincoln partially ended slavery, but did nothing to change hearts and minds. We still fight this war. The same forces that hate African Americans, hate Jews, and other immigrants. By the way, at one point the Irish were the scum and lowlifes.
With respect to Trump, here are my top 11 thoughts on the topic of Trump and the Nazis:
1. How people forget a tweet that Trump made mid last year showing a picture of the Nazi flag/symbol and the Jewish Star of David crossed out. Of all the White Supremacist imagery that I have seen in my life, that was the most vile, but also the most honest.
2. Trump admitted on another tweet that he keeps (kept?) a copy of Hitler’s Mein Kampf (My Struggle) on his nightstand.
3. Nixon and other Republican lowlifes are his idol.
4. Trump employs thugs and lowlifes (Steve Bannon, etc.)
5. Has a propaganda ministry along with a trained base to believe him.
6. (most important) Trump is as much of a legitimate sociopath than Hitler.
7. His whole “schtick” is to cater to hate and playing one-group off of another.
8. Like the German’s, he blames all people’s frustrations on “people who are not like you”
9. Removes social services all the while spending more on the military.
10. Has lawyers seeking ways to remove libel protections, so that they can go after media and control the media, just like in Russia and in Germany.
11. Shuts down free speech, prohibits agencies from disclosing information, closes down agencies, which protect people.
I could go on and on, however I made my point. Unlike individuals on the right, I am not speaking Hitler’s and the Nazi name for the hell of it. I, probably more so than anyone on this group, know what the Nazi’s did. Most of my family perished in the death camps in WWII. My parents barely survived. I heard stories. I saw the places, though have not been to Auschwitz yet. I have seen more documentaries on the topic than I care to, and I do not mean just American produced ones. I sat through Shoah and countless others. I know the stories first hand and saw the aftermath.
My family and many others said nothing, because they did not believe that something as vile and horendous can happen in Germany, which at that time was one of the most civilized in the world. (Does that sound familiar?)
Trump and his minions are researching modern ways to exterminate the masses. Zyklon B was a first attempt. There are other ways, as we found out in Syria, who Trump supports, with Assad and his mass murders.
There is an interview, which I reposted mid last year, of a son interviewing his father. The boy’s father is a historian at a university in Israel. The original interview was in Hebrew, but was translated. The boy asks his father if Trump and his followers are Nazis. The father said that he is not sure that there are signs, but he would have to wait and see. Since mid last year, we have seen everything and that is just the tip of the iceberg.
Imagine what we do not know and what has not come out into the public.
I asked if Trump is a Nazi. The response that I heard is that he does not realize that he is. One can say that he is ignorant and too stupid to understand what he is. I disagree. He knows exactly who he is and pushes his lies and propaganda.
Even Keith Olberman, whom I never in all the years that I have watched him, ever called anyone a Nazi and fascist, but he calls Trump and his allies fascist and Nazi, more often than not.
Whether one says fascist or someone like Putin or Mussolini, the evidence is in your face. We are talking to someone, who bars the U.S. media, but confids in Russia our secrets and invites the Russian news media.
Trump and Republicans are evil, more and simple and there is no other way to say it than that. By the way, I am not a bleeding heart liberal. At a Democratic club meeting, I was the only person to vote no on raising the sales tax. I AM Taxed Enough Already. I can hear the voice of fiscal responsibility. What I will not cotton to is fascism and the like.
I love my country. We must all stand up to all forms of fascism. We must protect our rights and that includes our safety net and, of course, the Affordable Care Act. In health, freedom, and openness comes success.
As Keith Olberman would say:
Resist! Trump, Republicans, and Fox News are traitors to America and do not represent the true America.
Get people to vote Democratic in the special elections and in 2018. Eliminate right wing gerrymandering. That is unfair to both sides and is not American.